The Invisible Skill For Change

Organizational change management (OCM) practitioners get things unstuck. But not with tools and templates or checking the proverbial OCM check box. Rather, they understand that people tend to stay stuck until they feel heard and can see a path forward. OCMers get things unstuck, not through a spreadsheet, but with the invisible skillsets of listening and coaching to facilitate decision making thereby creating momentum and empowering organizations for change.

Decision Making Is Gamechanger For Change

Decision making is a huge gamechanger for change that not enough people are talking about. As part of the change strategy, as part of leadership alignment, decision making needs to be illuminated from the outset. “Have we made a decision or not? Do we agree to that decision or not?” If leadership is out of alignment, a change effort is likely doomed before it even starts.

As OCM practitioners, we bring an invisible tool to the table. We are the person in the room uniquely positioned to listen and then to ask, “Was that just an idea or was that a decision?” We can raise questions when we see misalignment, “You said this, but then later I heard that. Tell me more.” We can facilitate challenging discussions to get clarity, “Do we have agreement or not? Let’s explore that.” As an OCMer, it is our job to shine light on places where organizations and people are not aligned and to coach leaders to make decisions — creating clarity, momentum, and traction for change.

Decisions Empower People

There is a strong correlation between decision making and organizational empowerment. When decisions are made it empowers people, unleashing tons of energy into an organization. In absence of decisions, people are waiting. As a result, there is pent up performance in the organization because of leadership and their inability to decide. Some leaders may avoid decisions because they fear that they will make the wrong one, but indecision will likely cost an organization even more. Without decisions people don’t know whether to go left or right, so they operate in the relative safety of the middle. If something comes across a person’s desk, but they don’t have the direction to confidently work on it, it’s likely they won’t work on it, and will prioritize those activities where they do have clarity of direction. So there the work sits, waiting, waiting, waiting, costing a lot and yet no one may see it. Even a wrong decision is better than no decision, because at least the organization is in it together, can learn from it, and then restart from the same place. But when a decision IS made and something comes across my desk, even if things aren’t 100% crystal clear, but I know where we are headed, I will work on it. I will feel empowered and confident to take action.

Leaders and employees see change differently. Leaders have a view from the top of the organization and see change as a single bolt of lightning bolt that goes straight to the ground. “We are acquiring, merging, entering into a new line of business, adopting a new technology.”

Employees, impacted by these changes, see them very differently. From where they sit, they see 18 bolts of lighting and accompanying shreds of light coming off of each one. For each change, they need want to know why it’s happening, when it will happen, what is expected of them, how they will be trained? “Am I still valued and can I be successful?” They need 100 different questions answered, or rather 100 different decisions made, in order to confidently move forward. For each big lightning-bolt-decision a leader makes, “We are going to acquire, merge, enter a new line of business, adopt a new technology,” underneath that decision are 100 more decisions, and beneath those decisions are 20 more decisions.

Facilitating Decision Making For Change

So how can you facilitate decision making for change?

• First, establish a Decision List. Listen for and write down decisions as they are made.
• Facilitate decision making when needed. “Have you decided this or not? If not, when will you decide?”
• Check for alignment. “Are you aligned on this decision?” This is where things can really wrong. It is easy to think we’re all aligned when in actuality we are not.

Decision misalignment, unfortunately, is too easy. They were aligned but now they are not! There are a lot of real things that can cause leadership to be out of decision alignment:

• Lack of buy-in. For whatever reason, someone is just not bought in, not for it, or against it.
• Misunderstanding and lack of communication. They discussed and agreed, but later someone had a question. They did not communicate, they did not go back and clarify, so they filled in the blanks with their own version.
• Assumptions. They are not even aware that they are out of alignment. The best cure for overcoming assumptions is active engagement and communication.
• Change of priorities. Yes, they agreed as an organization, but then they went back to their business unit. The priorities of their business do not align with that of the organization and that decision that they made together is no longer the most important.

So how do we manage the risk of decision misalignment? We go back to our invisible skillset and tools:

• Refer back to the Decision List
• If you see evidence of decisions pulling apart and splintering, document that data and log it as a risk.
• Check in with the team regarding the decisions that were made
• Facilitate the hard discussions. “Have we shifted? Where are we right now?”

“Change. Change. Change.” When we talk about change, it tends to be generic, difficult to act on and know what to do.

The devil is in the details. Decisions break down change and make it tangible. Don’t keep people waiting. Unleash energy for change in your organization with the invisible skillset of decision making. It will completely change the conversation.

Contact to learn how our consultants can help your organization unleash change momentum through better decision making.

A very special thanks to Courtney Smock, Change Management consultant, trainer, and speaker, and facilitator of The Change Course (a development experience to increase your ability to influence, assess impact, and coach through change), for her thought leadership, and for collaborating with us on this blog.

Originally published at https://www.changestaffing.com on July 27, 2021.